


The Key to Winning

by ilyena_sylph, Merfilly



Series: Midnight Verse [30]
Category: Transformers Generation One
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Future, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-23
Updated: 2013-10-23
Packaged: 2017-12-30 07:13:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,030
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1015686
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ilyena_sylph/pseuds/ilyena_sylph, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merfilly/pseuds/Merfilly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The war on Cybertron has been going for more than a few cycles, and the forces there are faced with a predicament that may have one solution... revealing Midnight's secret.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Key to Winning

"We have to retreat," Chromia hissed as the embattled Autobots and their Decepticon ally faced down yet another incursion of battle drones. "Shockwave's got the upper hand! He's got control of every drone, every mindless 'Con in his force, and the very planet!"

Elita One, having been pushed into bringing her meager force to bear on behalf of Megatron, merely nodded and shifted her position. "Fall back to the arranged location!"

Midnight barely heard her, even with he comm band reinforcing the audio. She fired off three quick, low power shots to rupture the decking ahead of two non-flighted drones. She was in a better position to hold the corridor.

"Midnight!" Thundercracker shouted. "Fall back and clear the way for me!" He hated being so confined, but this fight had begun in the latest base they had been using, deep in the warrens. "Elita One, you as well!"

The femmes both hesitated, one bristling, and the other curiously wary. Then they both felt his engines cycling, beginning the basso reverberations that could bring down the corridor.

"Moving!" Midnight snapped before Elita One could repeat the order, and both femmes slid back behind the more massive Seeker to regroup with the others. They kept moving, neither looking back, though Midnight kept her private bands locked on Thundercracker. When his sonics hit, channeled out in a concussive blast, she waited a nanosec… and there he was, moving, coming their way even as the corridor began falling apart.

Only then did she put full speed on, catching up to the others. Moonracer had lost her lower leg to this fight -- and was carrying it -- while Firestar had capped off all fluid loss, giving the femme a chance at survival. It wasn't going to be an easy trip, and the Undercity was not a place any sane Cybertronian wished to go, but it was what they had, and better than deactivation at the hands of those drones!

`~`~`~`~`

Megatron had managed to consolidate his troops in the cycles since the war for Cybertron had begun. That meant there were medics available to tend the Autobots, if a little roughly. With Springer and Arcee keeping an optic on that endeavor, Chromia and Elita One went to discuss the next move -- and why it would not work -- with Megatron and his command staff. Ultra Magnus and Midnight represented the Earth-side Autobots, though Midnight was unsure why Elita kept insisting on her presence.

"Megatron," Elita said firmly. "Your plan depends on force, and it is a good plan, save that you will have the same flaw I had. So long as Shockwave controls every remote, every drone on and in the planet, he will see any movement not directly within the Undercity. I do not know why he has avoided these tunnels, but it is currently our only advantage."

"Advise: listen. Countermeasures: ineffective to this point." Soundwave's quick interjection kept her words from causing yet another heated debate between the leaders.

"You are saying this is unwinnable?" Megatron asked, voice gone quiet and low.

"No, I'm not. But we need a different approach, using our strengths in ways to take him by as much surprise as we can," Elita One told him calmly.

"Something sneaky, and using the Undercity?" Starscream said, his crafty processor at work already. Behind him, ostensibly for conferring, his trine-mates shifted on their pedes, knowing that tone all too well.

"You have an idea?" Megatron asked as attention focused on the schemer of the Decepticon Elite.

"I have, in my explorations here before our -- journey -- to that mudball … found devices that I believe are master controls for the cities above them. If we could duplicate the Key… oh if we only had it … and find a suitable power source, it might be possible to shut him off from his devices." 

Everyone in the room stared at him.

"The Key was destroyed, and the only energy source comparable to what flowed through it would be the Matrix itself, and that is on Earth!" Megatron pointed out. Despite himself, Ultra Magnus let loose a burst of static. Megatron waved a hand irritably at him. "Oh no need to pretend in this hour of _our greatest need_ ," the tyrant sneered. "Did any of you think, despite all the times I have battled him to a standstill, I was yet unaware of his energies being augmented by that relic?!"

"Regardless of what you believe --" Ultra Magnus began.

"Is it just the energy?"

Midnight's question cut over her elder, and had the other three Autobots turning to her.

"Midnight, no," Elita One cautioned.

Midnight, as she was prone to, ignored her superior in favor of continuing. "If you crafted a Key, is it just the energy you need?"

Megatron watched her shrewdly, allowing Starscream to answer. "Yes."

"Then craft a Key. You have access to the energies." She held her stance of defiant readiness, seeing this as a chance to get this war over with, refusing to listen to the hisses of caution coming at her on the bands.

"Oh?" Megatron asked, his own processor telling him just what she had to mean, but wanting her to spell it out.

"Ratchet has informed me the reason my baseline is different is because it is matched to the Matrix that helped create me. I hold its energies in my spark."

The complete dampening of all of Thundercracker's fields was no more unnoticed by Megatron than Skywarp's wild burst of wonder, and Starscream's intensely amused laughter. 

::She is so very much her creators' sparkling,:: Chromia sent privately to Elita One, who could only assent silently.

::You're … she's … wow, now we really have to keep her, TC,:: Skywarp sent to his mate affectionately, unsurprised at the complete silence in turn.

Who would have thought that one of Prime's own creations would be theirs?

"Starscream, create the Key," Megatron rasped, even as he turned over just how to use this new knowledge to his best advantage. Though, if he was reading it correctly… he'd have to fight at least a third of his Command Trine if his plans involved damaging the femme.

First Shockwave. Then this matter when he had leisure to decide.


End file.
